Does Skin Art Affect Your Career Prospects?

Liverpool Football Club has had an excellent 2021/2022 season even though the current season has started out depressingly. I'm proud to have YNWA tattooed on my knuckles.

I remember various reactions back when I got my fingers inked. People were like, won't this affect your chances of getting a job? This was especially prevalent among the, shall we say, dinosaur elderly demographic, though in all fairness, younger people (who should know better, but apparently don't) have said pretty much the same thing.

Why they said what they said

Apparently, the conventional wisdom is that visible tattoos during a job interview is a very bad idea. Interviewers who see these tattoos are going to judge such a candidate negatively, and may even throw the application out altogether. Interviewers with a conservative bent are going to be prejudiced against visibly tattooed candidates right from the get-go. Some of the people who told me this - elderly relatives and such - probably are prejudiced against tattooed candidates themselves and might, I suspect, even act on those biases were they in a position to do so. They would know, right?

Facial tattoos are a bad idea.

To a limited extent, the assertion that visible tattoos are a bad idea, does make sense. I mean, if the tattoo is anywhere on your face, unless you're Mike Tyson or a Maori, you probably might want to re-examine your life choices. A facial tattoo screams I'm a rebel and I DGAF, which doesn't exactly instill confidence in either the candidate's emotional maturity or mental health. But if your tattoo is literally anywhere else... who gives a shit, really?

The other piece of conventional "wisdom" is - even if the risk of getting ostracized isn't that great, why take that risk at all? Why not optimize your chances of nailing that interview by covering up whatever body art you may have?

Well, kids, today must be your lucky day. His Teochewness is going to tell you exactly why.

Why none of it matters in the tech industry

People who think it matters, have no idea what the tech sector is like. They assume it is an industrial sector like any other. In some aspects, certainly. And in others, not so.

Tech hires on ability and affordability. To a certain degree (pun intended, heh heh), your paper qualifications don't even matter that much, even less so your physical appearance. This is not to say that Pretty Privilege does not exist or even just looking relatively boring and unthreatening does not have value in tech; but your ability to get things done is the first and foremost thing on any tech interviewer's mind. That, and whether or not the company can meet your salary demands. And in an industry where the demand far outweighs the supply, even mediocre techies like myself are almost guaranteed a job of some kind. The hiring managers cannot afford to turn people away based on something as petty as a tattoo.

Editor's Note: I'm well aware that Silicon Valley has begun engaging in layoffs and freezing of the headcount over in the USA. I'm speaking of Singapore's market here.

In tech, if you do get that job, it won't be due to a lack of visible tattoos. It will not even be a consideration. No one cares.

Visible tattoos.

What I'm trying to say is, tech workers are spoilt for choice. Not only are jobs in the tech sector available, in the absence of those, tech jobs outside of the tech sector are also available. The concern of your typical tech worker is whether or not they have the skills and experience that organizations require. Things like tattoos - on fingers, ankles, necks or even a full sleeve - simply do not make the list of things that are of any import.

It's usually people who don't enjoy the same staggering wealth of options that being a software developer offers, who are at the mercy of prospective employers. And therefore they are in the position of having to worry about issues that amount to trivialities for others. They are stuck in the mindset that employers are doing them a favor by hiring them... and quite often, that is true - for them. After all, if you're above a certain age, have few current and marketable skills and subscribe to antiquated nonsense (such as tattoos being a deciding factor), it is difficult to see the value proposition for prospective employers. People who have limited options should be grateful for whatever scraps come their way.

And if that sounds harsh, tough shit. Stop having limited options.

Why you should show those tattoos

Well, if people see those tattoos, and they're the kind of people who would turn qualified candidates away because they have some preconceived notions about skin art, are they really the kind of people you would want to work with?

What if the rest of the company is actually less particular and it's only the gatekeepers that have these prejudices? Well, are the kind of idiots that would hire gatekeepers like these, really the kind of people you would want to work with, or for?

These tattoos help
me filter out the
undesirables.

Now I am at the stage of my career where not only can I afford to turn away those opportunities, I can afford to burn those bridges... with extreme prejudice. Think of my tattoos as a screening device. Thus, if I really do get rejected at a tech interview simply because the interviewer did not like the tattoos on my knuckles, I'm not going to be losing any sleep over that perceived loss. It's not my loss. Indeed, I dodged a bullet.

If you think that sounds cocky, you're absolutely right. And if you ever intend to amount to anything, you should aspire to be in a position where you can afford to be that cocky. Anything less makes you just another shmuck.

Final note

I have spoken about this before, in passing. That was when I was trying to explain why it is not worth taking tech career advice from people who have never worked in tech. This is an expansion on an example I gave then, regarding my knuckle tattoos.

I stand by what I said then, and now.

Both employers and employees need to stop obsessing over skin art. Focus on worthier things. You're better than this.

Show your skin in the game!
T___T